Road 96: Mile 0 Review

I played Road 96 after the lockout and will forever be associated with that period in my head. Just as I was going out of my mind in the same house, day after day, I would turn up on Route 96 and run. My goal was the border of Petria, and I would do my best to sneak past it. It was a strange kind of wish fulfillment; I felt a kind of kinship with my faceless character.

It was also a pretty great little game. It’s one of the games I’ve recommended the most since it closed, and that’s mostly because of its structure. It abandons the conventional linear format that most narrative adventures adhere to, and instead adopts something of a roguelike. You don’t play Road 96 once – you play it several times. Each game is a different character, and by playing multiple teenagers, you build layers of understanding around endemic issues. The main character is not a Life is Strange like Max or Chloe: the main character is Petria.

When I heard there was another game in the Road 96 universe, I was both excited and a little worried. Because while I was looking forward to experiencing more tales from the world of Road 96 and the incredibly capable DigixArt, Road 96: Mile 0 seemed to take away everything I loved about the original. The con was gone, to be replaced by a conventional, straightforward story. Route 96: Mile 0 was a prologue, when Route 96 had already told me everything I felt I needed to know about this moment in fictional history. And it is a piece of character, where the main characters are the people, and not the state itself. My concern was that Road 96: Mile 0 seemed conventional and unnecessary, when the original was anything but.

Route 96: Mile 0 returns one month before the events of Route 96. President Tyrak has not yet announced his candidacy for re-election and the sandstorm has not yet arrived. The Black Brigade is also a whisper on the lips of the people of Petria, as the rebel group is just beginning to form.

It is in this period that we play as two characters. There’s Zoe, one of the characters we met regularly on the road in Road 96, and she’s joined by Kaito, who first appeared in DigixArt’s debut game, Lost in Harmony. While she is from White Sands, Beverly Hills, and Petria, he is from the slums of Carson City; and while she is the daughter of the Minister of Oil, he is a nobody, from a family that cannot make it. Together they are friends and class divisions seem irrelevant. But the emphasis is on ‘look’.

The story of Road 96: Mile 0 is about the journeys these two characters take, albeit more metaphysical than those in Road 96. Zoe must learn that she lives in an ivory tower and White Sands is not all of Petria. People live in poverty, and that includes her friend, Kaito. Kaito, on the other hand, has a job to convince Zoe of the way of thinking so that when she finds out what he has planned, she won’t immediately go to the authorities.

These stories are drawn with meters that are very different from the food and money of Route 96. Zoe is managing a Security meter as she chooses between Doubt the regime and Trust it. Kaito’s meter is balanced between determination in his cause and pragmatism about it. Every dialogue choice, poster melt, and story action moves the slider on these gauges.

These are all big changes from DigixArt, and – at least in terms of how much we cared about our choices and how much we invested in the stories – I never felt like they paid off.

Route 96: Mile 0’s plot tension, and its entire raison d’être, comes from whether Zoe and Kaito can team up with Petria, President Tyrak, the Black Brigade, and the plan that unfolds over time. But the problem is that I was playing both sides of the same argument. I got to play both Kaito and Zoe. Very few people would force the two characters to disagree just for kicks: most would agree on the same points, but that agreement would mean that Route 96: Mile 0 would immediately fail.

So what DigixArt does instead is manufacture the tension and it never quite stays right. Your dialogue options like Zoe or Kaito are variations on the same theme. You can disagree with Kaito carefully, or you can disagree with Kaito completely. Railroad tracks may look like they’re painted different colors, but they’re still railroad tracks.

Interwoven is the knowledge he carries over from Route 96. While the Black Brigade and their philosophies are imperfect, they are light years better than the tyranny of President Tyrak. We know this because we know the twists and turns of the first game. So when many of the dialogue options, especially in Zoe’s track, are to choose between wholeheartedly trusting Tyrak or doubting him, we can’t imagine many Road 96 players will choose ‘trust’. We’d love to see the percentages for each pick, Walking Dead style, as we can only imagine it would be lopsided.

All of these combine to make the narrative oddly produced and lacking any meaningful choices. The result was that I, somehow, stopped caring about the choice I was making. That’s not what interested me in Road 96: Mile 0. I was watching two characters complete the story arcs they were prescribed, as if it were an episode of a TV show, and not something I was a part of. That might be fine for some, but I have a feeling DigixArt wanted more than that. After all, there were gauges on my face.

Fortunately, Route 96: Mile 0 has a few more tricks up its sleeve. These stunts redeem it, pulling it back into line as a cracking game with what feel like — at least to us — misguided goals.

Chief among them are some Hi-Fi RUSH-like paced action sequences. Both Zoe and Kaito wonder and dream, and those dreams come true as several off-screen third-person sequences. They’re driven by an eclectic mix of tunes, and you skate and skateboard to the beats of those songs.

These sequences are not complicated. You can move side to side as well as jump and duck. These are the only buttons to memorize, as various shirts, rolling boulders, half-closed garage doors and other obstacles appear and must be dealt with.

The vast majority of these pieces are a bit special. They neatly depart from history, taking a theme from what just happened and turning it into a hyper-real interpretation. There are two distinct ones. The first has Kaito and Zoe running away from an all-too-familiar bodyguard, who grows gigantic over the course of the song. It’s his arms and legs dancing as he tries to grab you with love, all to the music of The Offspring. In another, Kaito is trying to convince Zoe that Carson City is not the Carson City she sees on TV. It makes you slip from an idealized version of the city to its slums, and there’s a glorious, applause-worthy sight as the two versions of the city face off on the horizon.

We have a few words about the readability of these sequences, as it can be difficult to tell whether an obstacle is a jump or a duck. Equally, collision detection is a little off, as we found ourselves getting penalized for things that could have been justified. Especially when you’re flying (occasionally you’re thrown into the air), Road 96: Mile 0 is a harsh judge of whether you’ve made a mistake.

Every time these sequences appeared, we were wrapped on our feet and paying attention. The obstacles match the music and we had a whale of a time. And that reaction is also true of a lot of the grown-up, magical-realistic stuff that happens in the main game.

Every so often, the game gets in the way of Road 96: Mile 0. We wish it did more often, as these sequences are stellar. They seem to be entertaining in proportion to how much they abandon reality. There’s a great Paperboy sequence, as you can throw papers at anyone and everything, sending people flying off bridges and ladders. Another had us playing a game of Supermarket Sweep as we desperately packed a fugitive’s backpack against the clock.

It feels a little surreal to write that Route 96: Mile 0 excels where Route 96 falters, and digs into what it did so well. Route 96: Mile 0 sings right in distraction, gameplay and mini-games. DigixArt is back in action with a bang and we’re still replaying every song to get an S+ ranking.

But it’s the story and the choices that can feel empty. Route 96: Mile 0 could be a rehash of a story we already knew, told as an argument where we played both sides, with choices that didn’t match what we wanted to say. There’s a lot to sort out, and – by the end of Road 96: Mile 0’s five hours – DigixArt can’t wrap it up into anything satisfying.

Should you play Road 96: Mile 0? Yes, but we wish it was clearer. It’s full of great, strong moments and fast-paced action sections that probably just warrant the asking price. But there are so many mistakes in the story that you can call it a complete setback. Hopefully, next time, DigixArt can tell a newer, broader story, rather than returning the car to its past glories.

You can buy Road 96: Mile 0 from the Xbox Store

I played Road 96 after the lockout and will forever be associated with that period in my head. Just as I was going out of my mind in the same house, day after day, I would turn up on Route 96 and run. My goal was the border of Petria, and I would do my best to sneak past it. It was a strange kind of wish fulfillment; I felt a kind of kinship with my faceless character. It was also a pretty great little game. It’s one of the games I’ve recommended the most since it closed, and…

Route 96: Mile 0 Review

Route 96: Mile 0 Review

2023-04-04

Dave Ozzy

Pros: Fast-paced action sequences are fantastic Some stellar gameplay moments Feel good to be back in the Road 96 universe Cons: Did we need to tell this story? Choices feel trivial Could work better for a new player. Info: Big thanks for the free copy of the game go to – DigixArt Formats – Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5, Switch, PC Version Revised – Xbox Series X Release date – April 4, 2023 Price starting from – £9.99 TBC

Result of TXH

3.5/5

Pros: Fast-paced action sequences are fantastic Some stellar gameplay moments Feel good to be back in the Road 96 universe Cons: Did we need to tell this story? Choices feel trivial Could work better for a new player. Info: Big thanks for the free copy of the game go to – DigixArt Formats – Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5, Switch, PC Version Revised – Xbox Series X Release date – April 4, 2023 Price starting from – £9.99 TBC User Rating: Be the first!